Yesterday I laid out a series of criteria that, Eric McGhee and I argue in a forthcoming article, can be used to evaluate measures of partisan gerrymandering. Today I’ll briefly explain why the efficiency gap satisfies these criteria.
Start… Continue reading
I have written this piece at Slate. It begins:
This could be a very bad week for voting rights in the United States.
On Friday, a federal consent decree to stop potential voter suppression by the Republican National Committee—in place… Continue reading
Ellen Aprill has posted this important draft on SSRN (forthcoming University of Illinois Law Review On-Line). Here is the abstract:
On November 2, 2017, the House Ways and Means Committee released its proposed tax reform legislation. It includes a provision… Continue reading
Eliza Newlin Carney:
By essentially repealing the so-called Johnson Amendment, a tax provision that bars charities from engaging in partisan politics, the House legislation frees up big donors to funnel even more unlimited, undisclosed money into campaigns, and, for the… Continue reading
Eric McGhee and I just posted a new article, The Measure of a Metric, that discusses the measurement of partisan gerrymandering and that’s forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review. In this post and a couple more, I thought I’d… Continue reading
NYT:
Among the changes in the tax bill that passed the House this month is a provision to roll back the 1954 ban, a move that is championed by the religious right, but opposed by thousands of religious and nonprofit… Continue reading
I’ve written about the likely unconstitutionality of a plan which would have temporary Senator Luther Strange resign from his seat, and have the Alabama governor call a new election. This seems pretty clearly to violate the 17th Amendment.
But buried… Continue reading
AP:
The FBI failed to notify scores of U.S. officials that Russian hackers were trying to break into their personal Gmail accounts despite having evidence for at least a year that the targets were in the Kremlin’s crosshairs, The Associated… Continue reading
Bloomberg/Haaretz:
Palm Tree may sound like a good moniker for a topical vacation resort, but it’s actually the name of the first new town being established in New York State in 35 years. The community is earmarked only for Satmar… Continue reading
Paula Span NYT column:
Physical barriers at polling places, a longtime obstacle for the elderly and disabled citizens of any age, can prevent older voters’ participation. Voting machines may not accommodate people who use wheelchairs or are visually impaired.
The… Continue reading
NYT:
Conservative groups and Republican election officials in some states say the poorly maintained rolls invite fraud and meddling by hackers, sap public confidence in elections and make election workers’ jobs harder. Voting rights advocates and most Democratic election officials,… Continue reading
Franita Tolson:
I am happy to inform you that the AALS Section on Election Law has selected Gerrymandering and the Constitutional Norm Against Government Partisanship by Michael Kang (Emory) as the Best Election Law Paper of 2017. We received a… Continue reading
Release:
Today, leading national civil rights organizations are urging state and county election officials in jurisdictions across the country to reject the Public Interest Legal Foundation’s (PILF) coordinated attempt to launch a wide-scale voter purge effort across the country. Using… Continue reading